U.S.-China-Japan
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN U.S.-CHINA-JAPAN-SOUTH KOREA RELATIONS
The U.S., China, Japan, and South Korea are engaged in a complex relationship involving key economic, technological, and military matters. Among these are the Sino-Japanese dispute over possession of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, Japan-South Korea security relations, and the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons. The Committee will post articles and documents of interest on these topics here, with the most recent appearing first.
Joint Japanese-U.S. Naval Operation in Taiwan Strait Signals Deepening Japanese Military Commitments to Taiwan
Analysis by Joseph Gerson, Co-Founder, Sane Committee, August 6, 2021
In an article dated Sept. 2, “Japan’s supplies to US Coast Guard aimed at testing Beijing, observers say,” Jack Lau of the South China Morning Post reported on a military exercise conducted by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) and the militarized U.S. Coast Guard in the Strait of Taiwan on August 31. During the exercise, a JSDF supply ship replenished a U.S. patrol vessel at sea for the first time during joint training.
The August 31 resupply of U.S. Coast Guard vessel by the JSDF naval component was designed to demonstrate a growing operational dimension to statements by Japanese leaders that it is prepared to join the United States in defending Taiwan militarily.
Despite Japan’s 1946 “Peace Constitution” commitment that “the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes,” a tacit alliance of senior U.S. officials and sectors of the Japanese elite have been committed to recreating Japanese military power ever since the end of the Korean War. With a $52 billion annual military budget, Japan is now the world’s 9th greatest military spender, behind Germany and France.[i] This allows Japan to maintain a “modern and effective navy.”[ii]
Building from a March 2021 agreement between Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin and their Japanese counterparts calling on Japan to join in the military defense of Taiwan if it is attacked,[iii] Deputy Prime Minister Aso and Japan’s foreign and defense ministers have reaffirmed that commitment.[iv]
Now, with JSDF and U.S. Coast Guard demonstration of interoperability capabilities in the Taiwan Strait, Japan has demonstrated the reality of this increased commitment to the U.S.-Japan alliance targeted against China.
As reported in that South China Morning Post article from Sept. 2:
Japan’s JS Oumi supply ship serviced the US Coast Guard Cutter Munro in the East China Sea last week during a two-day training exercise that included crew exchanges and maritime law enforcement training and exercises, after the Munro’s port visit in the Japanese city of Sasebo.
“This is the first time that a [Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force] supply ship has replenished a US Coast Guard patrol vessel,” said Toshihiko Yoshifuku, the commanding officer of JS Oumi. “I believe that we have further improved interoperability.”
Under an acquisition and cross-servicing agreement signed in 1996, the Japanese forces and US military can provide each other with resources such as food and petrol, as well as medical and training services, during operations including those held near Japan.
The US’ military exercises with its allies in the region are held to deter China from trying to take Taiwan by force, said Ni Lexiong, a maritime expert in Shanghai, adding that last week’s servicing cooperation would add to the US-Japan alliance’s combat capability. “The supply was about Japan showcasing its capability to China, Taiwan and the US – before, it was only doing the talk,” he said.
Endnotes:
[i] https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-defence-budget/japan-sets-record-52-billion-military-budget-with-stealth-jets-long-range-missiles-idUSKBN28V03X; https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2021-04/fs_2104_milex_0.pdf
[ii] https://www.militaryfactory.com/modern-navy/japan-maritime-self-defense-force.php
[iii] https://newbloommag.net/2021/03/22/us-japan-cooperation-tw/
[iv] https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japans-aso-peaceful-solution-desirable-any-taiwan-contingency-2021-07-06/; https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3138682/taiwan-security-directly-linked-japan-defence-minister-kishi; https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3138682/taiwan-security-directly-linked-japan-defence-minister-kishi; https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3138682/taiwan-security-directly-linked-japan-defence-minister-kishi
US Indo-Pacific commander reaffirms alliance with Japan amid China territorial claims
Mari Yamaguchi, AP via MilitaryTimes, June 1, 2021
In this article, the Associated Press reports that new commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. John Aquilino, has spoken with Japan’s prime minister, foreign and defense ministers, and top military leaders. As the AP reports Aquilino’s conversations were designed to reinforce the U.S.-Japanese alliance’s goal of enforcing the status quo in the western Pacific. Despite its war-renouncing constitution, Japan has built a modern military committed to reinforcing Japan’s territorial claims in the dispute over uninhabited islets in the East China Sea, called the Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu by China, and has joined the U.S. in “freedom of navigation” operations in contested areas of the South China. The Asia-Pacific “rules based order” was imposed by the United States following WWII without meaningful Chinese input.
The new head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command held talks with top Japanese officials on June 1 and reaffirmed their alliance amid China’s increasingly assertive claims to contested areas in the region, officials said. Adm. John Aquilino, who assumed the post in April, and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi shared their concern about China’s “continuous and intensified attempt to unilaterally change the status quo in the East and South China Seas,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Under the current circumstances, the importance of the alliance is greater than ever,” Motegi told Aquilino in his opening remarks.
The two sides also reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region and agreed to further strengthen their joint response capability and deterrence to achieve a “free and open Indo-Pacific.” Japan and the U.S. have been promoting the goal of a free and open Indo-Pacific, a defense and economic framework, in a group known as the Quad, which also includes Australia and India, that is seen as a move to counter China’s increasing influence in the region.
Aquilino also held similar talks with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi and top Japanese military officials and discussed North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. the Foreign Ministry said.
Commentary:
The New Cold War U.S.-Japanese Summit: Containing China and Reinforcing Hegemony
By Joseph Gerson, Co-Founder, Committee for a Sane U.S.-China Policy
Published April 24, 2021
Amidst the national fixation on the outcome of the trial of George Floyd’s murderer and political jockeying over the president’s mega infrastructure proposal, the significance of President Biden’s first New Cold War summit with a foreign leader was lost to most Americans. In politics, symbolism is often substance, and such was the case on April 16 when the U.S. and Japanese heads of state convened in Washington to demonstrate their common military, economic, diplomatic and scientific front against China’s rising power and influence.
Not lost on the Japanese public as it faces September elections were the photos and headlines trumpeting the honor given to Prime Minister Suga as the first foreign head of state to be welcomed to Washington, D.C. by President Biden.
When the two leaders met with the press to broadcast their “ironclad” commitments to the 70-year-old U.S.-Japanese military alliance, which was forced on Japan in 1952 as a condition for ending the post-war military occupation, Biden stressed the importance of the alliance to continued U.S. supremacy.
“Our commitment to meet in person,” he said, “is indicative of the importance, the value we both place on this relationship. We’re going to work together to prove that democracies can still compete and win in the 21st century.” Biden continued, “Today Prime Minister Suga and I affirmed our ironclad support for the U.S.-Japanese alliance and for our shared security. We committed to working together to take on the challenges from China and on issues like the East China Sea, the South China Sea, as well as North Korea, to ensure a future of a free and open Indo Pacific.”[1]
The two powers also underscored their agreement of “the importance of peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait between Japan and the United States, which was reaffirmed.” This at a time when the Biden Administration is ramping up diplomatic and military support for Taipei and China has responded with dangerously provocative intrusions of Taiwanese airspace by its warplanes.
Lost in the cliched rhetoric was that China’s economy, and thus its government’s stability, are dependent on international trade and thus to the unimpeded transport of goods and resources across the Indian and South China Seas. Similarly, the reference to “democracies” left something wanting. Japan has been a functional one-party state for almost seven decades. India, a key partner in the burgeoning U.S.-Australian-Indian-Japanese alliance, known as the “Quad,” is increasingly an authoritarian Hindu nationalist state in which millions of Muslims have been disenfranchised. And President Duterte in the Philippines presides over a murderous dictatorship, the leadership of which may soon be transferred to the dictator’s daughter.
The centrality of the alliance with Japan to maintaining U.S. power and privilege as the, in President Obama’s words, dominant “Pacific nation” was signaled before Prime Minister Suga made his way to Washington. In March, as part of the Biden Administration’s diplomatic and military shows of force on the eve of Tony Blinken’s and Jake Sullivan’s confrontational quasi-summit with the Chinese counterparts in Anchorage, the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin flew to Tokyo in their first overseas travel to demonstrate alliance solidarity, and its implicit threat to Beijing.
Japan, which “hosts” more than 100 U.S. military bases and installations, from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the South,[2] has long been seen as the “keystone” of U.S. Asia-Pacific power projections and the “hub” of the “hub and spokes” Asia-Pacific alliance structure. As former Prime Minister Nakasone once remarked, “Japan is an unsinkable aircraft carrier for the United States.” It served as a Cold War bastion against China and the Soviet Union, as the home of the U.S. 7th fleet and as the jumping off point for U.S. forces during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
Yet, even as Japan’s national security policy is anchored by the United States nuclear “umbrella” – or so-called “extended nuclear deterrence,” it too has become a regional power. Most people in the United States still think of Japan as a peaceful nation due to its U.S.-imposed war-renouncing Peace Constitution, which even prohibits maintenance of a military force. But, in what passes for Japanese democracy, constitutional provisions and the law have consistently been bent to serve power politics.
Beginning with pressure from the Truman Administration during the Korean War, Tokyo has created a military by another name: the Japanese Self Defense Forces (JSDF). It includes Asia’s most technologically advanced navy, which has joined the U.S. in provocative “integrated operations” in the South China Sea. Its ballistic missiles, which can reach, Mars could certainly be targeted against Beijing and Shanghai. And despite the Japanese people’s “nuclear allergy” in the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atom bombings, the government maintains 47 tons of plutonium and is often described as being but a screwdriver-turn away from becoming a nuclear power.[3]
Like every other nation, Japan is a country of competing interests which cannot be ignored. Powerful Japanese forces have vested interests in stable relations with China and press to limit actions that could undermine their wealth and influence. In 2019, Japanese firms and institutions had more than $130 billion invested in China.[4] Potentially more important for Japanese economic stability in its era of stagnation is its $317 billion in annual trade with China.[5]
In addition, there is also the reality of Japanese disorientation. China’s rise and increasing military power, after a century of Japan looking down on the weaker and long impoverished nation, have come as a something of a shock to the Japanese population. Japan’s priorities lie in maintaining stability, and so it has joined Washington in seeking to manage and contain China’s rise. In his joint press conference with Biden on April 16, Prime Minister Suga stressed this commitment saying, “we agreed to oppose any attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion in the East and South China Seas and the intimidation of others in the region.” He also reaffirmed Japan’s commitment to maintain the status quo in Taiwan.
That said, protecting Japanese economic interests which are intimately tied to Suga’s Liberal Democratic Party, requires sensitive diplomatic balancing which will keep Suga and his mandarins busy in the months ahead. China protested that the U.S.-Japanese summitry went “far beyond the scope of normal development of bilateral relations” and sowed regional division. Japanese officials must now thread the diplomatic needle in the complex and difficult negotiations for Xi Jinping’s planned 2022 visit to Tokyo, to mark the 50th anniversary of the restoration of formal relations.
Eager to avoid the consequences of offending Beijing, Japan is the only G-7 power not to have condemned or joined in sanctioning China for its repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang. Despite the charge of Chinese “genocide” by both the Trump and Biden administrations for Beijing’s mass imprisonment and repression of Uighers, Biden and Blinken had to compromise in the wording of the joint statement for the sake of maintaining the alliance. “Concern,” not outrage, was the wording used to describe their response to developments in Xinjiang.
In addition to showcasing the alliance and highlighting Taiwan military commitments, a number of other commitments were made in the April 16 joint statement and ensuing press conference. Recognizing that scientific and technological supremacy is central to the exercise of power in the 21st century, Biden and Suga committed to jointly invest $4.5 billion to boost their ability to surpass China in 5-G, AI, and quantum computing, and to reconstruct their semiconductor supply chains.[6] They also agreed to coordinate their approach to North Korea, with the hope of including South Korea in that coordination. And, while the fate of this summer’s Tokyo Olympics remains uncertain – and with them Prime Minister Suga’s hopes that successful games will boost his September reelection chances – President Biden offered his support for the pandemic threatened extravaganza.
Next up, President Moon Jae-in of South Korea will be making his alliance pilgrimage to Washington in May. Heralding that summit’s success will not come as easily as it did for the meeting with Prime Minister Suga. The Republic of Korea is more economically dependent on trade with China than is Japan. Resolving the nuclear crisis and taking steps toward reunification with North Korea are more important to President Moon than joining with the United States and Japan to contain Beijing. The lure of engagement with China’s economy and its potential role in facilitating negotiations with Pyongyang leave the U.S.-South Korean alliance less than “rock solid.”
The existential truth is that the U.S. and China are caught in the Thucydides Trap, the historic pattern of inevitable tension between rising and declining powers that have too often climaxed in catastrophic wars – including two World Wars in the 20th century. Conflict and war with China are not inevitable and must be avoided. Instead of seeking to contain China militarily, economically, technologically and diplomatically, we should be taking lessons from the establishment of détente with the Soviet Union during the last Cold War. Faced with the existential threats to humanity’s survival, we should be focusing of cooperation with China to reverse climate change, defeat and prevent pandemics, and rid the world of the nuclear sword of Damocles.
Endnotes:
[2] https://military.wikia.org/wiki/United_States_Forces_Japan
[3] https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2018-10/features/japan%E2%80%99s-misguided-plutonium-policy
[4] https://www.brinknews.com/japan-outstrips-china-in-investment-in-asia/
[5] https://www.brinknews.com/the-china-japan-economic-relationship-is-getting-stronger/
[6] https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Telecommunication/US-and-Japan-to-invest-4.5bn-in-next-gen-6G-race-with-China
U.S.-Japan Joint Press Statement
U.S. Dept. of State, March 16, 2021
The following statement was released by the Security Consultative Committee
Secretary of State Blinken, Secretary of Defense Austin, Minister for Foreign Affairs Motegi, and Minister of Defense Kishi held the U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee in Tokyo, Japan on March 16, 2021. They reaffirmed that the U.S.-Japan Alliance remains the cornerstone of peace, security, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region. Japan resolved to enhance its capabilities to bolster national defense and further strengthen the Alliance. The United States underscored its unwavering commitment to the defense of Japan through the full range of its capabilities, including nuclear. Amid growing geopolitical competition and challenges such as COVID-19, climate change, and revitalizing democracy, the United States and Japan renewed their commitment to promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific and a rules-based international order.
The United States and Japan acknowledged that China’s behavior, where inconsistent with the existing international order, presents political, economic, military, and technological challenges to the Alliance and to the international community. The Ministers committed to opposing coercion and destabilizing behavior toward others in the region, which undermines the rules-based international system. They reaffirmed their support for unimpeded lawful commerce and respect for international law, including freedom of navigation and overflight and other lawful uses of the sea. The Ministers also expressed serious concerns about recent disruptive developments in the region, such as the China Coast Guard law. Further, they discussed the United States’ unwavering commitment to the defense of Japan under Article V of our security treaty, which includes the Senkaku Islands. The United States and Japan remain opposed to any unilateral action that seeks to change the status quo or to undermine Japan’s administration of these islands. The Ministers underscored the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. They reiterated their objections to China’s unlawful maritime claims and activities in the South China Sea and recalled that the July 2016 award of the Philippines-China arbitral tribunal, constituted under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, is final and legally binding on the parties. The Ministers shared serious concerns regarding the human rights situation in Hong Kong and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Recognizing that North Korea’s arsenal poses a threat to international peace and stability, the Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea and urged Pyongyang to abide by its obligations under UN Security Council resolutions. The Ministers also confirmed the necessity of immediate resolution of the abductions issue. Trilateral cooperation among the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea is critical for our shared security, peace, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.
The United States and Japan reaffirmed that the strength of the Alliance comes from our shared values and is amplified by our network of close partnerships with like-minded democracies. The March 12 Quad Summit demonstrated to the world our shared vision of a free, open, and inclusive region anchored by universal values and unconstrained by coercive power. The Ministers pledged to work with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), affirming their strong support for its centrality and unity, as well as for the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.
Recognizing the increasingly serious regional security environment, the Ministers recommitted to enhancing close coordination to align security policy, deepen defense cooperation across all domains, and bolster extended deterrence by consulting on Alliance roles, missions, and capabilities. They highlighted the importance of domains such as space and cyber, as well as further strengthening information security. In addition, they reiterated that realistic bilateral and multilateral exercises and training are necessary to maintain the Alliance’s operational readiness and deterrent posture, as well as to meet future challenges.
The Ministers acknowledged the importance of close coordination as the Department of Defense conducts its Global Posture Review. They welcomed progress on force realignment efforts and reaffirmed their commitment to implementing the current arrangements in ways that maintain operational readiness and a sustainable presence, while mitigating the impact on local communities. They reconfirmed that the plan to construct the Futenma Replacement Facility at the Camp Schwab-Henokosaki area and in adjacent waters is the only solution that avoids the continued use of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, and committed to completing construction as soon as possible. Regarding Host Nation Support, having agreed to a one-year extension amendment to the current Special Measures Agreement, the Ministers instructed their negotiators to work toward a new mutually beneficial multi-year agreement.
In remembrance of the thousands of lives lost to the Great East Japan Earthquake and its aftermath in March 2011, the Ministers underscored the cooperative spirit of the Alliance and reaffirmed their commitment to working alongside one another to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
In recognition of the depth and breadth of the U.S.-Japan Alliance, and the need to increase momentum on numerous shared policy priorities, the Ministers called for another Security Consultative Committee meeting later in the year.
U.S. defense chief, secretary of state to visit Japan from March 15
Kyodo, via Japan Times, March 4, 2021
On March 4, the Kyodo News Service reported that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin plan to visit Japan from March 15 for talks with their Japanese counterparts. This will be the first visit to the United States lead Asia-Pacific ally by senior Biden Administration officials.
According to the report, “Blinken and Austin plan to hold so-called two-plus-two talks with Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi. They are also likely to meet with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suda. The planned in-person talks… are expected to showcase the robust alliance between the two countries amid China’s increasing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region, including around the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.”
The report added that the U.S. and Japanese governments have reaffirmed close collaboration to maintain ‘a free and open Indo-Pacific’ and improve their deterrence capabilities. The report continued, “Both sides reiterated their strong opposition to unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion in the East and South China seas, and shared their ‘deep concerns’ over Beijing's controversial coast guard law, according to the two governments. The law, implemented on Feb. 1, explicitly allows the Chinese coast guard to use weapons against foreign ships it sees as illegally entering China's waters, raising concerns that it could result in an escalation of maritime disputes.”
Chinese vessels have repeatedly operated in waters around the uninhabited Senkaku/ Diaoyu islands claimed by both Japan and China. The article also quoted Secretary Blinken as saying that dealing with China will be ‘the biggest geopolitical test’ of this century, and stressed the Biden administration’s emphasis on alliances and multilateralism.
As Biden seeks to restore alliances, a souring Japan-South Korea relationship presents a challenge
Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Washington Post, March 1, 2021
In this article, Michelle Ye Hee Lee explores the challenges faced by the Biden Administration in re-energizing Washington’s Northeast Asian alliances, and particularly overcoming the deep distrust between South Korea and Japan that date to Japan’s colonization of Korea and the systematic exploitation of Korean “comfort women” – sex slaves – during the 1931-1945 Asia-Pacific War. Unremarked in the article is the reality that China has become South Korea’s largest trading partner, which in turn impacts its relations with the United States.
In the article, Ye Hee Lee writes that “Relations between Japan and South Korea are once again at one of their lowest points in decades. Whether the United States can nudge the two countries into cooperation will be highly consequential for the Biden administration’s ambitions to restore trust abroad and effectively counter China’s rise and North kore’s nuclear capabilities with a coalition of lie-minded allies, experts say.”
After the decline in trust of the United States as a reliable ally during the years of the Trump Administration, and China’s continuing rise, South Korea, Japan and the United States have reason to fear that the Biden Administration could be followed by a successor in Trump’s “America First” tradition, with the emphasis on alliances being only temporary.
Professor Yoshihide Soeya of Keio University in Tokyo is quoted in the article as saying “Asian allies of the U.S. have to think in a really serious [way] strategically about the place and role of the U.S. at this time of mega-competition between China and the United States, and it’s not an easy situation.”
As an expression of Secretary of State’s seriousness about deepening U.S.-South Korean ties and those between South Korea and Japan, Ye Hee Lee notes that South Korean officials have been surprised that Secretary of State Blinken wants to consult directly regularly with his high level counterparts – not just once or twice a year. To indicate the depth of the challenge facing Secretary Blinken, he quotes Daniel Russel, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs in the Obama Administration, as saying, “When there’s a serious rift in the family it’s hard to invite your friends over for dinner.”
China says Japan-US security treaty a product of Cold War
Associated Press via Military Times, Feb. 24, 2021
According to this AP dispatch, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Feb. 24 that the Japan-U.S. mutual security pact was a product of the Cold War following U.S. criticism Chinese coast guard vessels intrusions into Japanese-claimed territorial waters near the disputed Senkaku Islands (called Diaoyu by China) in the East China Sea.
“The U.S.-Japan security treaty is a product of the Cold War, which should not harm a third party’s interest or endanger regional peace and stability,” Wang said at a daily briefing in Beijing. The 1960 security treaty assures the U.S. would come to Japan’s aid in the event of an outside attack on Japanese forces or territory. Wang also said the islands were “China’s inherent territory.”
The verbal exchange followed reports that two Chinese coast guard ships on Feb. 21 twice entered Japanese territorial waters surrounding the islands…. Japan’s coast guard said it was the ninth time this year that Chinese coast guard ships have entered Japanese territorial waters around the islands.
US ally and China partner: how South Korea navigates between two powers
Rachel Zhang, South China Morning Post, February 6, 2021
In this article, Rachel Zhang draws heavily on the perspectives of South Korea’s consul general in Shanghai, Kim Seun-ho, described as “Seoul’s senior diplomat in China’s financial hub.”
Kim maintains that his country’s future depends on maintaining good relations with both the United States and China. While saying that his country’s future “depends on both powers,” he stressed that “China’s technology is already the world’s top class. Whatever you are doing, you can’t do it well without engaging with China now. The reason foreign companies come and stay in China is to ‘make with China.’”
Kim points to the possibility of a three-way free trade agreement between China, South Korea and Japan as a way forward. According to Zhang, “Kim’s confidence reflects Seoul’s broader willingness to work with Beijing as South Korea navigates relations with its biggest trading partner – China – and its strategic ally, the United States.” Kim said, “Seoul wanted to maintain ties with both countries and would only suffer if relations between the two powers went awry.”
“For [South] Korea and most small and medium countries, we need two pillars in order to keep standing up. These two pillars are China and America. So China and the US have the responsibility to stand still amicably,” he said.
As Kim remarked, “Trade is central to South Korea’s relationship with China and talks have been under way for eight years for a trilateral free-trade agreement that would also involve Japan…. Kim said it was time for South Korea, China, and Japan to unite to compete with other large economies including the US and the European Union in the ‘smart economy’ era, and a free-trade deal would contribute to that end.”
The Japan-South Korea Conundrum for U.S. Policymakers
Joseph Gerson, Committee for a Sane U.S.-China Policy
With the Biden Administration making revitalization of U.S. alliances in Asia a top security priority, attention is turning to renewing Japanese-South Korean security collaboration, which via an informal trilateral alliance with Washington, has long helped to secure U.S. influence in Northeast Asia. However, the history of Japan’s 1905-1945 brutal colonialization of Korea – for which (in South Korea’s view) it has yet to fully apologize – along with South Korean nationalism serve as obstacles to such trilateral security collaboration.
On January 18, 2021, on the eve of President Biden’s inauguration, President Moon Jae-in of South Korea held a press conference in which he signaled his intention to improve relations with Japan. Days later, the Seoul Central District Court ordered the Japanese government to pay compensation to 12 wartime “comfort women” (military sex slaves), causing widespread consternation in and resentment in Japanese political circles. Despite President Moon’s statement that he has been surprised and “bewildered” by the Court ruling, Masahisa Sato, director of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Foreign Affairs Division, responded that “It is we who are bewildered,” and that President Moon had said “nothing specific that could lead to a resolution.”
Differences in Japanese and South Korean security priorities will serve as additional obstacles to recreating the trilateral relationship that prevailed when both South Korea had conservative governments. President Moon’s priority are relations with North Korea, maintaining peace on the Korean peninsula, and laying the foundations for peaceful reunification of Korea. The priority for Prime Minister Suga’s government in Tokyo is to continue deepening its alliance with United States as it faces an increasingly powerful China, under the slogan pursuing a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific.”
Sources:
https://thediplomat.com/2020/12/a-test-of-japan-south-korea-relations/
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/01/01/national/japan-asia-biden-coronavirus/
China-US tension: Biden administration pledges to back Japan and Philippines in maritime disputes
Wendy Wu & Teddy Ng, South China Morning Post, Jan. 28, 2021
According to this article, the Biden administration has pledged to support its allies involved in maritime clashes with China over sovereignty of disputed islands in both the South and East China seas.
On January 28, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and U.S. President Joe Biden talked about the defence of the Diaoyu Islands, known as the Senkakus in Japan, in the East China Sea, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged support to the Philippines in the event of armed attacks in the South China Sea.
In the phone call with Suga, Biden reaffirmed U.S. commitment to defend the Diaoyu Islands.
“President Biden expressed his unwavering commitment to the defence of Japan, including the application of Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty to the Senkaku islands,” the Japanese foreign ministry said.
Biden also expressed commitment to “extended deterrence,” both governments said in separate statements, a term that refers to the potential use of nuclear weapons to defend an ally.
Secretary of Defense Austin Reaffirms U.S. Commitment to Defend Japanese Control of Senkaku-Diaoyu Islands Against China
Reuters, Jan. 25, 2021, via Asahi Shimbun
New U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, during his first phone call with his Japanese counterpart, reaffirmed America's commitment to Tokyo to defending a group of East China Sea islets claimed by both Japan and China, the Pentagon said.
Austin, in talks with Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, confirmed that Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan security treaty, which stipulates U.S. defense obligations to Japan, covers the uninhabited islands, the Pentagon said in a statement.
Austin also reaffirmed that the United States remains opposed to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East China Sea, the Pentagon said.